Search form

No. 17 OSU Drops No. 8 Washington 3-1

Alan Gordon's two goals helped the No. 17 Oregon State men's soccer team up its record to 10-4-0 overall and 4-1-0 in Pacific-10 Conference play with a 3-1 win over No. 8 Washington Sunday afternoon at Lorenz Field.

The Beavers have now won four Pac-10 matches in a row - the longest Pac-10 winning streak in program history.

OSU jumped out to a 3-0 lead by the 33rd minute, and then packed in its defense in the second half to preserve the win.

For the third game in a row, freshman midfielder Carlos Cornejo opened the scoring for OSU, scoring in the eighth minute when Ross Duncan played a ball into the box, where Ryan Johnson headed it to Cornejo for the score and a 1-0 lead.

Duncan tallied his second assist of the day in the 15th minute on a corner kick to the far post, where he connected with Gordon for a header and a 2-0 advantage.

Gordon struck again in the 33rd minute to make it 3-0 when Evan McNeley lofted a throw-in into the center of the box; Gordon played the ball to his feet, took two dribbles and scored on a shot in the lower right corner.

'Washington is a great team - I think it goes back to the old adage that there is a huge advantage in the Pac-10 when you're playing at home,' OSU coach Dana Taylor said; the Beavers are 4-1 at home this year. 'Washington will be ready for us when we get up there, that's just the way it goes.

'Any time you're leading 3-0 at halftime like we were, we had to tell the guys that we still need to be aggressive and get after it; this game was far from over at that point. We scored three in the first half, they can score three against us just as easily.

Troy Ready brought UW within 3-1 in the 81st minute, dribbling into the box for a shot from 15 yards.

Both teams played a physical match from the opening whistle - Washington was called for 26 fouls to OSU's 24. OSU's Kurt Ness was ejected with his second yellow card in the 68th minute after UW's Joe Birklid was sent off with a red at 55:03.

'The game opened up when both guys got carded,' Taylor said. 'There was a lot more space to run in, and C.J. Klaas and Leo Totev are very dangerous players for Washington. I thought they got hold of the midfield a little bit late in the game, but we were just trying to sit in at that time and make sure they had no easy goals over the top.'

'Washington is ranked seventh in the nation and we had homefield advantage, so we have to take advantage of that while we have it,' Taylor said. 'This puts us one step closer to our goal. Every time we step on the field, it's about working hard, covering for each other and being dangerous. That was the mentality we brought today.'

Peter Billmeyer made several critical saves in the OSU net and broke up a few other Husky threats; in all, the senior team co-captain had seven saves Sunday. His UW counterpart, Danny Waltman, made six saves.

Gordon now has 11 goals this year and 25 points overall to lead the Beavers and rank fourth on OSU's all-time season points list.

Already OSU's season and career assist record-holder, sophomore Ryan Johnson tallied his 13th dish of the year after entering the weekend leading the nation in assists. Johnson has yet to score a goal.

Ross Duncan moved into fifth on OSU's career assist list; he now has 12 for his career and eight this season, which matches the third-highest OSU season total.

OSU has won the last three meetings with the Huskies, including two last year, after going winless in the first 17 contests.

The Beavers are off this week and resume Pac-10 play Friday, Oct. 31 with a 1 p.m. match against California at Lorenz Field.